crawl

1 of 2

verb

crawled; crawling; crawls

intransitive verb

1
a
: to move on one's hands and knees
The baby crawled toward her mother.
b
: to move slowly in a prone position without or as if without the use of limbs
The snake crawled into its hole.
The soldiers crawled forward on their bellies.
2
: to move or progress slowly or laboriously
traffic crawling along at 10 miles an hour
3
: to advance by guile or servility
crawling into favor by toadying to his boss
4
: to spread by extending stems or tendrils
a crawling vine
5
a
: to be alive or swarming with or as if with creeping things
a kitchen crawling with ants
b
: to have the sensation of insects creeping over one
the story made her flesh crawl
6
: to fail to stay evenly spread
used of paint, varnish, or glaze

transitive verb

1
: to move upon in or as if in a creeping manner
all the creatures that crawl the earth
2
: to reprove harshly
they got no good right to crawl me for what I wroteMarjorie K. Rawlings

crawl

2 of 2

noun

plural crawls
1
a
: the act or action of crawling
A child's early developmental stages, be it their first crawl or their first step, is something parents eagerly anticipate and cherish.Malvika Hemanth
b
: slow or laborious progress
Traffic slowed to a crawl.
It [Hurricane Ian] swamped city streets with water and smashed trees along the coast while moving at a crawl that threatened catastrophic flooding across a wide area.Mark Heim
c
chiefly British : the visiting of various pubs in succession especially as a social activity
… tourists have also recently been reported doing a crawl around the London pubs where Karl Marx allegedly used to get drunk.Jeremy Atiyah
see also bar crawl, pub crawl
d
: a themed event that involves visiting multiple establishments of a similar kind in succession
A shuttle will run throughout the day to take visitors to the various locations on the art crawl and visit the 15 vendors who've created works for the shopping event.Sarah Colburn
In New Jersey, there's no shortage of experiential tourism for foodies, from food crawls in Jersey City to … farms in Hunterdon County …Kimberly Redmond
A lit crawl is like a pub crawl, except (perhaps) you won't have a headache the next day. You will, however, wake up to find your head stuffed with glorious words and (perhaps) to see a new stack of books on your bedside table.Laurie Hertzel
2
: a fast swimming stroke executed in a prone position with alternating overarm strokes and a flutter kick
3
: lettering that moves vertically or horizontally across a television or motion-picture screen to give information (such as performer credits or news bulletins)

Examples of crawl in a Sentence

Verb Does the baby crawl yet? We got down on our knees and crawled through a small opening. The baby crawled across the floor toward her mother. The soldiers crawled forward on their bellies. The snake crawled into its hole. They're doing construction on the road, so traffic is crawling. I worked late into the night, and it was 2 a.m. before I finally crawled into bed. The bus crawled along the rough and narrow road. The days slowly crawled by. Work on the project has crawled to a standstill. Noun Near the construction site, traffic had slowed to a crawl. The bus was moving along at a crawl. Her strongest stroke is the crawl.
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Robust, chicory coffee sourced from his parents’ farm is served at Midnight Temple, and a green wall crawling with faux greenery is dedicated to the husband-and-wife duo and their rainforest upbringing. Detroit Free Press, 6 Mar. 2024 Deputies were summoned at 11:55 p.m. to a parking lot at Birmingham Drive near Villa Cardiff Drive where a man in his 30s was reported crawling around the lot with no shirt and no shoes, sheriff’s officials said. City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Mar. 2024 The paintings had a small vocabulary of simple shapes (dollar bills, hearts, globes, crawling babies), applied to the picture plane with no great attention to exact placement or color, like a baker applying sprinkles to a birthday cake. Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 The videos show hundreds of people surrounding and climbing on trucks and people crawling and ducking for cover. Michael Levenson, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024 If no shelter is available, crawl to an interior wall away from windows. Don Sweeney, Sacramento Bee, 29 Feb. 2024 Putting a female officer out on the street also provided a multitude of disguise opportunities in a city like Moscow, which was crawling with suspicion. Dawn Klavon, Peoplemag, 25 Feb. 2024 At least four guests staying at four separate hotels along the Las Vegas Strip saw bedbugs crawling in their rooms between Sept. 2023 and Jan. 2024, local outlet KLAS reported. Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, 24 Feb. 2024 After their time is up, cabin crew will have thirty minutes to change the sheets and clean the pods, before the next person can crawl inside. Alex Ledsom, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
Noun
The annual art crawl, set up throughout the heart of the town, will have dozens of local vendors, live street performances, shopping food and more. Chyna Blackmon, Charlotte Observer, 4 Mar. 2024 Moviegoing has slowed to a crawl in recent weeks, while 2023’s strikes have impacted this year’s release schedules. Jake Coyle, Quartz, 18 Feb. 2024 The Lantern Festival proceedings in the U.K. Some British communities also observed the holiday, with a Chinatown food crawl in London and a commemoration in Southampton. TIME, 24 Feb. 2024 For context, Palantir reported an NRR of 150% at the end of FY21 in US commercial, but that likely fell significantly when growth slowed to a crawl at the end of FY22. Beth Kindig, Forbes, 15 Feb. 2024 Kelly’s departure comes at an abysmal time for the Bruins given that the coaching carousel has spun to a crawl and few, if any, highly coveted replacements remain available. Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024 The sense of community is enhanced by events held throughout the year, including wine tastings, deck crawls and holiday celebrations. Kansas City Star, 25 Jan. 2024 Another adorable picture shows Sidney giving Lemmy a bone as the two crawl on the floor together. Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 11 Jan. 2024 Enjoy tours, tastings, seminars, a cheese crawl and an artisan marketplace. Brittany Delay, The Mercury News, 1 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crawl.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English, from Old Norse krafla

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of crawl was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near crawl

Cite this Entry

“Crawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crawl. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

crawl

1 of 2 verb
1
: to move slowly with the body close to the ground : move on hands and knees
2
: to move along slowly
the bus crawled along
3
: to be covered with or have the feeling of being covered with creeping things
the floor was crawling with ants
crawler noun

crawl

2 of 2 noun
1
: the act or motion of crawling
2
: a swimming method in which the swimmer lies facing down in the water and moves with overarm strokes and a thrashing kick

More from Merriam-Webster on crawl

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